THE ASCENT OF BALLADS 131

Biscay. The poet is not alone, but accompanied by Grief. The rest
is in conformity with the tradition. The ship is of gold—

gold of mast and gold of cordage,
gold of sail to sight was she;—

lacking the softness of silk which mitigates the gold in Spanish.
The sailor, too, has lost the magic of Arion and Orpheus, but comes
a-hailing:

On the golden deck the steersman

standing at the helm of gold.
Man and ship and sky and water

burning in a single flame;
and the mariner of Ocean

he was calling as he came:
from the highway of the sunset

he was shouting on the sea,
6 Landsman of the land of Biscay,

have you help for grief and me?'
When I heard I did not answer,

I stood mute and shook my head:
son of earth and son of Ocean,

much we thought and nothing said.
Grief and I abode the nightfall;

to the sunset grief and he
turned them from the land of Biscay

on the waters of the sea.

(Last Poems, London, 1936.)